Ultrafast relaxation dynamics of an athermal electron distribution is investigated in silver films using a femtosecond pump-probe technique with 18 fs pulses in off-resonant conditions. The results yield evidence for an increase with time of the electron-gas energy loss rate to the lattice and of the free electron damping during the early stages of the electron-gas thermalization. These effects are attributed to transient alterations of the electron average scattering processes due to the athermal nature of the electron gas, in agreement with numerical simulations.